Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Would Taking JD to a Vet Immediately have made a difference?

When things go wrong, it is important to reflect on what has happened and whether something could or should have been done differently.

When it comes to my dogs’ health, I am very paranoid and advocate seeing a vet as soon as possible. Sometimes immediately. I am not one to promote procrastination, putting things off, watching a disease to progress or taking chances with trying to diagnose and treat things myself. In fact, even when I want to use a home remedy, I discuss it with our vet first.

I believe that seeing or talking to a vet is the best course of action with just about everything.

Why did we not take JD to a vet right away?

Regardless of our local vet’s doubt, I was confident there was no pain involved. JD was eating, drinking and eliminating normally. He had no fever, his gums were normal color, he wasn’t panting, vomiting or drooling … everything was normal except the weakness in the legs.

I talked to two vets, and at that time they both agreed that what we were seeing was possibly a reaction to his meds which should reverse itself once the drugs were out of his system. It should have been a self-limiting issue.

We waited only for 24 hours because that was the time it should take for things to start returning back to normal.

We were prepared to take him in immediately should the status quo have changed.

But things worked out badly.

Naturally, the haunting question was whether seeing the vet right away would have made a difference.

With many things, 24 hours could have indeed made a world of difference. Given the potential diagnoses, though, it would not have made a difference for JD. The only perceivable difference was that he got to spend one last night curled up with daddy.

While that makes it easier to live with as far as our decisions are concerned, it doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking.

That said, I still recommend erring on the side of caution and not delaying seeing a vet unless you know, or at least you think you know, what is going on and you have talked to a vet about the situation.

I also highly recommend knowing what signs indicate a medical emergency when time indeed is of the essence.

2 comments

This is a case where you could have taken him in and the vet would have sent you on your way because they would most likely have suspected the exact same thing you did, and would have given you a wait and see approach.

Yes, two vets I talked to figured that was the cause. And if they did figure out what was truly going on, the outcome would have been the same as it was the next day. The one case out of a million, I suppose, when the timing wouldn't have made any difference.

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